Subsidence help
Complaints Procedure
Something about your underpinning enquiry or the work that followed has not gone as you hoped. This page sets out how to let Surrey Underpinning know, what sort of answer to expect, who handles concerns about the building work, and your options afterwards.
Making a complaint
Please send your complaint through the enquiry form, which is the single route we use for complaints. Write in ordinary language: nothing formal is needed. It helps a great deal if you include the address of the affected property, roughly when you first got in touch about subsidence or underpinning, and a clear account of what went wrong. Tell us too what outcome would feel fair to you, whether that is an explanation, a correction or something else. If you have emails or letters linked to the matter, mention them so the complaint can be tied to the correct enquiry. You do not have to work out beforehand whether the problem lies with this website or with the firm on site. Describe it as you see it, and it will be pointed in the right direction.
How we respond
Every complaint receives a reply in writing. That written answer will say what has been looked into, what we found, and anything we propose to do about it. Where a point is unclear, we may come back to you with questions before giving a full response, simply so the answer deals with your real concern rather than a guess at it. Keeping the reply in writing also means you have a clear record to refer to later, which matters if the issue needs to go further.
Concerns about the underpinning itself
When you make an enquiry here, your details are passed to the specialist firm that carries out the underpinning, and that firm is responsible for the work it does at your property. So if your complaint concerns the quality of the work, the way it was done, or the conduct of people on site, it is the specialist firm that did the job who needs to look at it and put matters right. If you raise such a complaint with us, we will explain this in our reply so that you know where the matter should go. Complaints about how this website dealt with your enquiry or your information are ours to answer directly.
If the matter is not settled
Should our written reply leave you dissatisfied, write back through the same enquiry form, explain which parts remain unresolved and why, and ask for the complaint to be looked at again. We will reconsider it in light of what you add. If the dispute concerns the underpinning work and the firm's own answer does not resolve it, follow that firm's complaints process through to its end. Beyond that, you are free to seek consumer advice, for example from Citizens Advice, or to take legal advice about your rights. Nothing in this procedure limits any legal rights you already have.